Studies on Revelation and
Inspiration
God Shows and Tells
When we face the fundamental questions of life and death, we realize
how inadequate we are to find satisfying answers without God. There is
only one true solution—to turn to our Creator and Redeemer so that we
may discover what He is able to reveal to us about Himself and His
purposes for us. When we turn to Him for answers, we learn that God
loves us greatly and is eager to guide our lives.
Because it is impossible for us to discover what we need to know
about God, He reveals all that He knows we can grasp about His eternal
nature and infinite goodness. The fullest revelation of God is found in
Jesus Christ, who is the focus of the Scriptures. Indeed, the heart of God's
revelation in the Written Word centers in the Living Word.
But Satan does everything he can, especially in these last days, to
lead people to doubt, ignore, and reject God's revelations. He uses
what some call science to lead people to think that only that which is
reasonable to sin-perverted human minds is true. Thus the limited
human intelligence becomes the judge of whether the greatly su-
perior revelations of the infinite God are correct. Consequently,
many have rejected basically every aspect of God's self-revelation.
This quarter's guide is designed to deepen our appreciation of God's
revelation of and about Himself through His inspiration of the Bible
writers. Inspiration from God enabled them to grasp and communicate
His revealed will in a trustworthy manner. This guide is designed to help
us gain a proper perspective on how inspiration has produced and pre-
served the Scriptures and how God enables us to understand best what He
has revealed. A good deal of time and space could be given to dealing
with the questions and objections raised by skeptics. Instead, the ap-
proach purposely focuses on reviewing the clear and definite information
God has given about understanding His revealed will.
"The Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, are the written
Word of God, given by divine inspiration through holy men of God
who spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In this
Word, God has committed to man the knowledge necessary for
salvation. The Holy Scriptures are the infallible revelation of His
will. They are the standard of character, the test of experience, the
authoritative revealer of doctrines, and the trustworthy record of
God's acts in history.—Fundamental Beliefs, 1."—Quoted in
Seventh-day Adventists Believe . . . ,
ed. The Ministerial Association
of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (Hagerstown,
Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988), p. 4.
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